Well, one thing I've always worked to do is to help the players on TechPB out. Whether it was working in the BST, giving advice, chasing down scammers or even just basic things like helping with sigs and image posting. Well, now fortunately there is one more thing I can help players with and that's advice and support for your teams. I'm not an expert and I'm not an industry type, however I feel I can give better than typical insight into how to benefit your team in a few different aspects. We are a scenario team with a good group of former competitive speedballers and several very experienced players. We are based in Canada with one player from the US and we play most of the major games in Ontario and attended Living Legends this year. Next year we anticipate a minimum of 4 US events including LL, 2 games at EMR and one at GRC Paintball.

One thing I can tell you is that one thing which makes sponsorships easier and more lucrative is having an "in". The paintball industry is a small one, just about everyone is interconnected within it. Once you get into that circuit if you do well for them it will likely bring other deals down the line.

Another thing I'll tell you is this, do not expect free gear, do not expect cash or to be paid to play, most sponsorships are basically a volume discount, anything more than that is earned, not given.

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To help build up your team's profile a successful team page on Facebook to help build those up feel free to post up a link to your team's fan page or group on Facebook and in turn the players using this thread and the teams participating in this sharing of info should feel an obligation to support the other teams taking part. To advance the sport, the players and the team we should all bond together and support each other, if we can all work together EVERYONE will ultimately benefit. So, feel free to reply with your questions and when you do include a link to your Facebook and I'll update this thread with them in a list with the team's name and the links.

Already liked Citrus and Brew City, played with you guys at LLV. I'll have to add the others. Social networking does have it's benefits. Our team is Hand of Fate based out of western PA/ Northeast Ohio. Check out our facebook page. We try and keep it pretty active.

I have a question for you Orange- how do you get all the team members on the same page as far as equipment goes?

Already liked Citrus and Brew City, played with you guys at LLV. I'll have to add the others. Social networking does have it's benefits. Our team is Hand of Fate based out of western PA/ Northeast Ohio. Check out our facebook page. We try and keep it pretty active.

I have a question for you Orange- how do you get all the team members on the same page as far as equipment goes?

In regards to getting guys in line with gear it's going to be a bit different from team to team but this is something you just have to gauge yourself. What my team does is we settled on Vanguard as a gun sponsor and told the guys they can shoot Demons or Creeds, the Creed is the cheaper option with them selling at $450ish also good for guys who 100% prefer poppets. We also however have an agreement with Frank that guys only have to shoot a Vanguard if they're shooting an electro. Our guys are also allowed to shoot any pump, mech, cocker, FSR capable or any other niche gun if they like as well since it's not a competing item with Vanguard products, we also have a few dedicated pumpers.

Aside from that I told my guys from day one that I will never seek a soft goods or mask sponsor for the team. Reason being is that they're items that you have to wear all day sometimes 2 days in a row playing for 8-9 hours. That is their personal comfort and I'm not going to force people to wear something they don't want to. Yes, we could get soft goods and masks cheaper if we were sponsored but those extra few dollars of savings, let's assume max saving of $100 per year is not worth a season of bitching and discomfort lol. With Pinokio we have an agreement that a certain percentage shoots Pinokios, so at the end of the day it isn't all about your team making sacrifices to get savings, you can often work out deals that better fit your team with sponsors.

Another way to get a variety of items on your team is to deal with a shop or better yet (price wise) a wholesaler. Reason for this is that they'll carry a variety of different brands and if you're sponsored by them they'll likely be cool with your guys wearing anything they carry. We're now sponsored by PBL Approved which is a large wholesaler in Canada, they also own the CXBL and AXBL. For soft goods and masks they carry,

VForceEmpire

Though given our relationship with PBL and the PBL shop we represent Recon Paintball they are not forcing us to wear only those brands, they are cool with us using whatever we currently own and I doubt they'll enforce strict branding on us. Many sponsors will force exclusivity on teams to bring up their own sales, PBL doesn't on us because the primary role we serve is to promote PBL and it's events and products.

For soft goods they have Exalt, HK and GI and I believe through dealing with PE and Empire they could get those soft goods in too but they don't actively stock them on the shelves, at least in Recon anyway. They vary their stock from location to location to a degree and also based on what the shop's "basis" is, Recon is mostly xball, where as Ripple is mostly Milsim.

By better building your team's reputation and your reach (Facebook, youtube, forums) as well as how well known you are in general the better of a position you put yourself in to negotiate. Most companies however, at least the ones I've dealt with have been very reasonable and quite flexible.

Orange is a great guy to deal with, my team is deciding on sponsors and I am really leaning toward Vanguard. We were talking on facebook and it happened to come up and he said he would help us if we do want to go down that route.

Sorry for the wait man my team captain takes forever to make up her mind haha.

Interesting way about going about gun sponsor Orange, my guys and I are seeking a gun sponsor ourselves, though we may have our in shortly, and we are looking at going strictly mag-fed for a sponsor.

Can't wait to run with ya'll at LL6, and hopefully next year we'll be getting a chance to get up to Canada and play at PRZ and a few other places.

You should also think of coming to Tippmann Challenge in Ottawa at Commando Paintball, it's an EPIC field and a lot of magfed played there as well, from what I hear it's an amazing game, we'll be there next year.

Orange is a great guy to deal with, my team is deciding on sponsors and I am really leaning toward Vanguard. We were talking on facebook and it happened to come up and he said he would help us if we do want to go down that route.

Sorry for the wait man my team captain takes forever to make up her mind haha.

Now that the crash has been taken care of figured I'd bring this back. For teams interested in events we'll be attending for LL and Western Wars we'll be teamed up with the Devil Dogs, Bad Company, Brew City Bomb Squad and Team FEAR.

Now that the crash has been taken care of figured I'd bring this back. For teams interested in events we'll be attending for LL and Western Wars we'll be teamed up with the Devil Dogs, Bad Company, Brew City Bomb Squad and Team FEAR.

Just heard from Honu that Ohana PB will be making the trip out for Western Wars in June too. So we'll show you all how to party Bucky Style

There is only one game in the past two and a half years where us in the Bomb Squad have played on the same side as Honu. I swear the paintball gods must want us to shoot each other at every given moment

I have a question for you Orange- how do you get all the team members on the same page as far as equipment goes?

Coming from the other side of the response as a player, Getting everyone in a single mind set isnt hard when everyone is willing, and understanding of the situation, When we all got together the first thing we all voiced was that we dont want a "sponsor" as much as we want a partner. I know that I want to grow and develop as a player, and having someone who wishes to adventure and grow means that together we can reach both our goals by helping each other.

Also, Orange is a nice guy.... i know he can be scary. sometimes downright terrifying. but he gives us options, and everyone's voice (while maybe not as.... loud) is equal to his own. and that makes a big difference when everyone is open to a different point of view

Hey, so I didn't read this all the way through (it's 3 am and I need to go to sleep, promise I'll come back and read it tomorrow after classes). But I'm assuming it's a like for like type of thing using social networking, which is awesome. My team just started this past season and we have a facebook page but not much else yet. I'll post more info and a link to it tomorrow, as well as go through and like all the teams both as myself and the team page.

Edit: Alright, I read through the original post completely and like the idea. Here's a little bit of information about my team: Stratus.

We are currently a local area tournament team only that just started this past season. The members of the team are all university students at Colorado State University which severely limits our ability to travel and play, so we do what we can locally. Several of us have been playing paintball for awhile, however last year was our first year in the speedball circuit of the sport. We play because we love the sport and the competition is extremely fun and energizing. In our first year we took 3rd place in our local tournament series at the entry, or rookie, level. Next year we hope to continue to learn and improve as we move up a division to the Novice level where we will compete with more teams and hopefully learn a lot.

Had our first team meeting this weekend. Being a bunch of poor college kids makes it hard to have a solid roster haha. We all are dirt poor. Oh well, anyone got any suggestions for good custom jersey work that we can get done for a good price? We do not need the best of the best, just some simple custom work.

If you are all dirt poor, I'd suggest either buying an off-the-rack jersey that you can all agree on so that you all have the same colour and design, or opting for a semi-custom jersey, which many places offer as a less expensive alternative

If you could add Kaiserslautern Legion to the thread? We are a all U.S. military team ballin' in Germany. We will be playing in the DPL & XPSL (5 man CTF, uncapped semi/15bps semi) and we will also be participating in the Veckring Big Game in France in May. The support of the TechPB community would be awesome and we will be sure to support anyone who's team is connected to TechPB. Thanks!

If you are all dirt poor, I'd suggest either buying an off-the-rack jersey that you can all agree on so that you all have the same colour and design, or opting for a semi-custom jersey, which many places offer as a less expensive alternative

another option would be long sleeve t's... like what vicious uses for practice... or used to anyway

If you are all dirt poor, I'd suggest either buying an off-the-rack jersey that you can all agree on so that you all have the same colour and design, or opting for a semi-custom jersey, which many places offer as a less expensive alternative

Well, it is our second season and we all agreed that it was time for a more appropriate jersey. Not all of us are dirt dirt poor because we have nice summer jobs and we are willing to pitch a bit extra for something that will last longer and look nicer.

Had our first team meeting this weekend. Being a bunch of poor college kids makes it hard to have a solid roster haha. We all are dirt poor. Oh well, anyone got any suggestions for good custom jersey work that we can get done for a good price? We do not need the best of the best, just some simple custom work.

Go buy yourself matching longsleeve shirts from walmart. Save money to play instead of wasting it on looking pretty on the field.